Batting at No.8 and playing in his third Test, the 23-year-old needed just 86 balls to reach his first hundred in any format, international or domestic.

After bringing up his first 50 off 61 balls, Pandya's next 50 came off only 25 balls as a listless Sri Lanka had no answers for the powerful right-hander.

He departed shortly after the lunch break for a brilliant 108, finishing with seven sixes and eight fours.

Day wrap: India's openers fire but brave SL fight

Pandya set a new India Test record when he took 26 runs off the first five balls of a MalindaPushpakumara over, eclipsing the previous record of 24 set by Sandeep Patil in 1982 and equalled by legendary allrounder Kapil Dev in 1990.

Another boundary off the final ball of the over would have taken Pandya past Brian Lara and George Bailey's jointly held Test record of 28 for the most runs scored off a single over.

It was nonetheless the fastest century by Indian No.8 and the fifth fastest overall by an Indian in Test cricket.

Second-game spinner Pushpakumara also wrote himself into the record books, with the 26 he conceded surpassing Suranga Lakmal's mark of 24 (struck by New Zealand's Brendon McCullum in 2014 at Christchurch) for the most expensive Test over in Sri Lanka's history.

The most runs conceded in an over in international cricket is 36 – a six from every ball – which has happened in both limited overs formats, and twice in first-class cricket but never in a Test match.

The most runs off an over in a first-class match is the 77 Wellington's Bert Vance conceded against Canterbury in 1990. A series of full-tosses and no-balls dotted the 22-ball over as Wellington tried to induce Canterbury to chase a target in the hope of forcing a result.

Bailey's massive Anderson over

In ODI cricket, Herschelle Gibbs blasted six straight sixes off Netherlands bowler Daan van Bunge in the 2007 World Cup in St Kitts, while in T20 internationals Yuvraj Singh sent Stuart Broad into the stands off six consecutive balls in the 2007 World T20 in Durban.

Bailey equalled Lara's record of 28 (struck off the bowling of South Africa's Robin Peterson at the Wanderers in 2003) during the 2013-14 Ashes, taking the long handle to James Anderson in Perth during the series whitewash.

Louis Cameron is a Melbourne-based journalist. A former Victorian Bushrangers fast bowler, Louis joined the cricket.com.au team with assistance from the Australian Cricketers' Association's Internship Program in 2016.